EncDate:31/05/24 

EncSeq:1

Enc#:45

ObservBegin:12:15 PM

ObservEnd:12:34 PM

Vessel:

Staff:Dave Ellifrit, Michael Weiss

Pods:Bigg's killer whales

LocationDescr:Kellett Bluff

Start Latitude:48 35.00

Start Longitude:123 12.30

End Latitude:48 35.26

End Longitude:123 12.83

 

EncSummary:

Michael and Dave were working in the office when a report came in over the radio of a couple of probable Bigg’s killer whales that were spotted in Mitchell Bay. It was a nice day, and the whales were too close to ignore so we headed down to Snug Harbor and left in the boat at 1210. Barely five minutes later we were on scene off the south end of Kellett Bluff and the encounter started around 1215. The whales had not been identified yet but two whales with biggish dorsal fins went down on a long dive off the bluff as we arrived. While waiting for these two whales to resurface, we spotted another group of whales about a half mile to the southwest of us. The two whales we were waiting for eventually came back up again and they turned out to be the brothers T49A2 and T49A3. These two were loosely spread out and pointed north and we grabbed a couple of quick sun-glary rights of them before we moved to the other group offshore. This group was the rest of the T49As (minus T49A1, who was not present) along with T19 and T19B again. This pairing of groups has spent a lot of time in the San Juan Islands during the Spring of 2024. The group was in a mostly tight formation and was heading north about a half mile west of the south end of Kellett Bluff. Since we have had multiple encounters with these whales already this year, we grabbed a few quick right side shots and then ended the encounter at 1234.